LiDAR Expert Explains How the Technology Can Enforce Social Distancing Without Need for Staff Intervention [Interview]

Social-distancing rules are a key part of safely reopening the economy during the COVID-19 crisis, but how can they realistically be enforced?

For a building security team attempting to enforce social distancing, their job involves two key tasks:

1. Counting people to keep track of building occupancy
2. Measuring the distance between people to spot physical distancing breaches

If you enter a supermarket, for example, it’s common to see a staff member near the entrance keeping count of the number of people in the building by tracking traffic coming in and out the doors. They’re usually armed only with a tally counter, otherwise known as a “clicker.”

Staff members will also be on the lookout for groups of two or more people breaching physical distancing rules by standing closer than six feet apart. Multiple times per day, they’ll approach customers to ask that they step apart to comply with social distancing rules.

Both of these approaches are manual, haphazard, require constant vigilance, and, frankly, are exhausting. As with many other very manual processes, the solution lies in automation.

Automating Social Distancing Compliance

Silicon Valley-based technology company Quanergyhas pivoted away from the autonomous vehicle market to provide LiDAR-enabled social distancing solutions.

Thomas Insights spoke with Quanergy Chairman and CEO Dr. Kevin J. Kennedy to discover why the company made the shift, how the technology works, and how it can help accelerate our return to work.

Why Pivot From Using Autonomous Vehicles to Enforce Social Distancing?

Businesses all over the U.S. have offered assistance during the COVID-19 crisis in different ways. Some manufacturers have retrofitted their factories to make critical PPE supplies, distilleries have produced hand sanitizer, and 3D designers have publicly released 3D printing files for medical supplies such as face shields and ventilators.

For Quanergy, the opportunity to help lay in the area of supporting solutions that enforce social distancing, regarded by medical experts as the most impactful way to halt the spread of coronavirus. They did so by expanding Quanergy’s AI-powered LiDAR Flow Management Platform to help make social distancing enforceable and achievable.

But Kennedy explains that there was also a much more practical element to the decision. The adoption of autonomous vehicles in the U.S. has been much slower than expected, which means many tech companies that have positioned themselves to service this sector – including LiDAR providers – do not yet have the market they need to survive.

“Even if you disregard the impacts of the economic downturn, today’s autonomous vehicle market isn’t where people thought it would be five years ago,” Kennedy told Thomas Insights. “So we had to be realistic about when it will absorb new technology. In the meantime, we realized we have the ability to intercept and disrupt other markets. The social distancing challenge offered one of those opportunities for disruption.”

How Does LiDAR Work?

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology works by propelling photons to hit a surface, then calculating its time to return to create a 3D map. Quanergy’s system can track and count people, measure distances between individuals, and classify objects (for example, discriminating between a large-bodied person and two people walking very closely together).

Users of the system can set up alarms that will alert security to intervene and break up a crowd if, for example, the number of people in a building goes over the maximum capacity, or if a group of people has drawn together in breach of social distancing rules. The alert may also be used to automatically dispatch cleaning services to areas where there has been a social distancing breach.

Quanergy’s tech solution comes in two forms: the first is a mechanical LiDAR sensor, originally built for mapping but now rearchitected for classifying objects and flow management. These sensors can cover a lot of floor space (up to 70 meters) and are ideal for infrastructure such as airports. The other solution is the solid-state LiDAR sensor, which has higher reliability but a shorter range, and is more suitable for indoor tasks such as counting people entering a building or monitoring meeting room occupancy.

Physically, LiDAR sensors look like a baseball-sized cylinder or box that can be strategically placed high on a wall or hung from a ceiling.

Users can create dashboards to track simple metrics such as the number of people allowed in a conference room versus how many it currently contains, or the percentage of times people have drawn closer than 3, 5, or 6 feet apart.

How Can LiDAR Maintain Social Distancing?

The technology can integrate with thermal imaging cameras to spot and track people with elevated body temperatures which could indicate a coronavirus-related fever. To reduce the number of false alarms, the system will place a tag on that person and track them for a set period to see if they cool down. If not, the system will alert security to intercept that person and double-check their temperature.

Importantly, Quanergy’s solution collects no personal privacy information, so it doesn’t require user opt-in or sharing of personal data. Traditional video cameras, on the other hand, will record and store images of people’s faces.

Kennedy estimates that an airport will require 10x fewer LiDAR devices than cameras to cover the footage required and that video cameras (with their associated bandwidth, installation, and cabling) cost 10x to 20x more than the LiDAR alternative. There are also fewer false alarms.

“Essentially, what we’ve done is automate a very manual process”, says Kennedy, “and enabled all the benefits that automation brings – better flow management, greater accuracy, fewer false alarms, lower staffing costs, and very measurable data that can be analyzed and audited to ensure compliance.”

Social Distancing LiDAR’s Potential Applications

Quanergy’s Flow Management Platform can be used to support the enforcement of social distancing in offices, distribution centers, factories, public transport (trains, buses), and public spaces like retail buildings and airports.

Social distancing solutions built on this platform will soon be available through Quanergy’s partners including Quantum Labs, iCENT, CRON Systems, Axone, and CrowdVision.